The top picture is where we used to live number 14 earl street at the side of the green lane w.m.c and that was a long time ago.

we lived aat twenty one earle sstreet. It was great having the library at the end of the sstreet. I spent hours there.Next door to us were the Smiths. Their older children were ken and mavis. Then Mrs Smith had Gillian. Mrs Smith suffered with terrible post natal depression and couldn't look after Gillian, so my mother took baaby Gillian in. For agews I thought Gillian wasw my sister.Cocky Scaltock and belgian Tilly lived a few doors up. Cocky would get drunk a lot. The problem was that gocky was around four foot eleven, and Tilly was about six foot and a big woman as well. She'd lock Cocky out, or bray him with the frying pan and he'd come to our door and ask my dad to peersuade Tilly to let him in. He once turned up drunk at our door with a dozen eggs smashed over his head.Next door but one on the other side were the Worstfolds. I was good mates with Geoff and Alf. They were good lads. We'd plaay cricket until it got dark in summer.We'd have crazes. Nobody knew how they started or how they ended. All of a sudden we'd be making paper aeroplanes, then slots out of cardboard boxes with bits of pot for currency, then making aniseed ball water, or having ginger beer plants. Some crazes were relevant to the seasons-whip and top startted on Shrove Tuesday-you'd make chaalk circles on the top of your top and the colours would all blend as it whizzed around. Autumn would be conkers with everybody off to East hardwick where the best conker trees were. Then of cours bonfire night. The biggest bonfires were on the green and the rezzer. the green was on one side of Earl Street behind the Green lane club. The Rezzer was on the other side. Bonfires would be guarded against raiders, and lads would sleep in them sometimes.

when we moved into earle Street I was a baby. On the first night that we were there my parents were awoken by a kind of rustling noise. They woke up to find the entire house swarming wwith black clock beetles, hundreds of thousands of them. The Council came and fumigated the place-it was called 'stoving'. We had no hot water, and no electricity, my motgher cooked on the black leaded yorkshire range. When you went to bed at night in winter there would be ice on the inside of the window. You'd squirm around to get warm